No matter what you think of Starbucks, it’s never good news when a company announces job cuts of around 1,000 people. In a letter to employees, CEO Howard Schultz announced the job cuts, which include about 550 layoffs (the rest will come from natural attrition). About 180 of those positions will be in the Seattle area both at the SODO headquarters and another regional office in the area. This is after February job cuts numbering 600 (220 through layoffs).

They are also closing a number of stores in Australia and laying off 685 workers there as well.

The full story is in the Seattle Times.

Now I personally don’t drinks Starbucks coffee. I don’t much like the taste and given the choice, I’m going to pick a fair or direct trade coffee bean that I know was roasted recently. I could even joke about the fact that there are some intersections downtown where even recently released Mariner (and now Yankee) Richie Sexon could hit a baseball from one store to another. All right, maybe Sexon couldn’t do it. Vidro?

However, not only do I hate to see anyone laid off, but there is one circumstance where I will patronize a Starbucks. When I travel, I often find myself without a car in an unfamiliar location, and while locating an independent coffee shop with fair trade coffee is incredibly easy in Seattle, it isn’t very easy in say, Orlando. Starbucks is predictable and dependable. I know when I walk into a Starbucks, that I can order my triple iced Americano and it will be pretty much the same triple iced Americano I’d get at any other Starbucks.

Hopefully Schultz knows what he’s doing. What do you think? Does he?

Edited to add: And in other Starbucks News, My Ballard has an interesting post on Starbucks’ acquisition of Clover. Apparently they are refusing to sell any more Clover machines to any independent coffee shop. This is one of those moves that prompts all of the Starbucks hate that runs rampant in this town. I have to admit, given how much I love my Clover coffee, this really frosts me as well.